Janadian said:
16) Have you been charged with an offence that under the Act Of Parliment and is pushable by a maximum term of imprisonment of at
least 10 years?
...
Under what circumstances may processing be suspended?
If any of the proceedings below apply to you and you send a sponsorship application to CPC-M, your application will not be processed until a final decision is rendered with respect to that proceeding.
This means that CIC will suspend the processing of an application if the sponsor has been charged with an offense. They will resume processing once a final decision has been made.
So it does not apply to the OP's situation - her boyfriend was charged, yes, but also convicted; in other words a final decision has been made.
Someone who has been convicted of assaulting a non-family member and who is now on parole
can sponsor his spouse.
The relevant section of the application is form IMM 1344 A, page 4, E Eligibility Assessment (that is, "Who can sponsor?"), question 16: "Have you been charged with an offense ... punishable with a maximum term of imprisonment of at least 10 years?"
If the answer to 16 is 'yes', they tell you to see your guide to see when processing may be
suspended.
To me this means processing may be suspended while the courts decide if the person is guilty. If the person is found guilty, the person is free to sponsor someone once he has been released from prison.
The OP's boyfriend was convicted of a crime that is punishable by more than 10 years in prison, true, but he is now out on parole, which sounds to me like he can sponsor her now.
This is the page of the guide that talks about who can sponsor:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/3900E2.asp
This is the quote from that guide:
"
You are ineligible to sponsor if:
* you are in prison;
* you are an undischarged bankrupt;
* you are in receipt of social assistance for a reason other than disability;
* you were convicted of a sexual offence or an offence against the person with respect to
o one of your family members or relatives,
o one of your spouse’s or common-law partner’s family members or relatives, or
o your conjugal partner or one of your conjugal partner’s family members or relatives, unless you were granted a pardon or five years have passed after the expiration of the sentence imposed on you;
* you were adopted outside Canada and subsequently obtained a revocation of your adoption for the purpose of sponsoring an application for permanent residence by your biological parent;
* you are subject to a removal order; or
*
have been convicted of a serious criminal offence, have provided false information to Immigration, or have not met conditions of entry."
So the only question then is, will CIC think the boyfriend's crime is a 'serious criminal offence'? If yes, he cannot sponsor her; if no, he can sponsor her. What constitutes a 'serious criminal offense' is not clear in the guide, probably because CIC wants some leeway on the matter.
I think the boyfriend should phone the CIC hotline, describe his situation, and ask. He should also consult a lawyer. I'm guessing that this is the kind of situation that depends on the person at CIC who is reviewing the sponsorship application. Neither the CIC phone assistant nor any lawyer will know for sure whether the boyfriend will be accepted as a sponsor; the only way to know for sure is for him to apply to sponsor. This is the kind of case where the sponsor and applicant should say that they want to continue with the application even if the sponsor is found ineligible - because if the marriage is then found to be genuine at the visa post, they may be able to win the appeal on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
